[Funding alert] Edtech startup Leap raises $75M in Series D round led by Owl Ventures

San Francisco-headquartered edtech startup Leap Scholar, which also has offices in Bengaluru and Singapore, on Wednesday announced that it has raised $75 million (Rs 585 crore) in a Series D funding round led by Owl Ventures.

The round also saw participation from new investors Steadview Capital and Paramark Ventures, along with existing investors Jungle Ventures and Sequoia Capital India. 

The startup has raised over $150 million in equity since its inception. In September 2021, it raised $55 million in a Series C round of funding led by Owl Ventures.

Vaibhav Singh, Co-founder of Leap, said,

“Over the next couple of years, more than five million students are expected to cross the international border to fulfil their global dreams. With the backing of marquee global investors, we continue to march forward on our mission to  democratize access to quality global education and make these dreams a reality.” 

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Founded in 2019 by Vaibhav Singh and Arnav Kumar, Leap—which runs LeapScholar, LeapFinance, and Yocket—is a full-stack international student mobility platform. The startup runs an online community of overseas education aspirants, with over two million students, and offers a suite of products to cover their study life cycle. These include international test prep for exams including IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, etc, admissions and visa counselling, as well as financial offerings like international student loans, international bank accounts, credit cards, and money remittance services.

Amit Patel, Managing Director, Owl Ventures, added,

“By simplifying an otherwise overwhelming process and helping students navigate all the steps of counselling, test-prep, and financing, Leap is well-positioned to support the increasing demand to go and study abroad as more countries and companies around the world are becoming further integrated into the global economy.” 

As per the startup, it used a holistic end-to-end approach to help over 175,000 students in their study abroad journey in the past 12 months. 

Arnav Kumar, Co-founder of Leap, shared, 

“Having built the underlying infrastructure for global student mobility, we are now able to scale rapidly across multiple dimensions. We have launched many industry-first products and experiences to make the student journey seamless. Ensuring student success has been our mission and we will continue to deepen our  existing offerings and launch newer ones in the months ahead.” 

In recent months, Leap has undertaken several new growth initiatives. In April, the company announced a partnership with Colorado State University, US to bring the university’s MCIS programme to Indian students in a multi-geography hybrid format and at a much lower cost. The startup says more such innovative offerings are in the pipeline across its 750+ global university partners. Earlier this year, the company expanded its presence into the Middle East to help students in the region in their study abroad pursuits. 

According to Ravi Mehta, Founder and CIO, Steadview Capital, “We believe Leap is well-positioned to take this platform globally and help students from all over the world to achieve their dreams.” 

“Jungle Ventures is proud to triple down on Leap with our third investment in two years since leading their Series B, as they have rapidly grown and become the leading all-in-one platform for emerging Asian students looking to study overseas. We believe overseas education is a large global market and a long-term trend and are committed to supporting the Leap founders and team to become the largest global study abroad  platform,” stated Yash Sankrityayan, Managing Partner, Jungle Ventures.